Better; Scarlett’s Driving School

“Well, this makes a change: a female protagonist who is a corrupt, two-faced, cold-hearted scumbag cop and leaves her sick son at home to suck up to a ruthless gangster, and all so she can have a fancier house. I like it. Obviously the antihero as lead character premise isn’t new, but this still feels fresh.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Shows about bent coppers are nothing new but Better puts a different spin on things. Slack isn’t doing McHugh’s bidding because he’s threatening her; rather, the pair have a friendship which goes back many years. Leila Farzad and Andrew Buchan have a cracking chemistry, and it is their relationship that makes this five-part drama stand out and rise above the limitations of the plot.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“It’s a shame there is so much scene-setting in the first episode because once all that is out of the way, the drama is much less superficial than it first appeared to be. Information is drip-fed to give the story more depth, particularly when it comes to family ties, who is related to who, and who has lost what. It is very moreish and does get better.”
Rebecca Nicholson, The Guardian

“One set piece, in which she confronted a drug-addled thug and persuaded him to hand over his shooter, was almost worthy of Happy Valley’s Sgt Catherine Cawood — the benchmark beside which all world-weary female coppers must now be measured. So far, though, I’m not sure why her husband stands by her — or how he circumvented BBC rules that insist All Men Are Swines.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“Anyone expecting a repeat of Sarah Lancashire’s procedural powerhouse will have been disappointed. Better’s first episode was fast-moving and, with its artfully shot night-time scenes, gave suburban Leeds a handsome noir makeover. But it suffered from bland performances and a fiddly storyline.”
Ed Power, The i

“It’s a promising start to this five-part series, although I do wish that TV commissioners would take more risks on shows that don’t have a police uniform or a straining bodice in sight. The dramatic tension is building, incrementally but surely. It is as if Farzad and Buchan are gradually tightening the screws on one another’s characters, scene by scene, and line by line: there is a great sense of impending mutual destruction between these protagonists.”
Sean O’Grady, The Independent

“The driving segments of the show might actually be helpful to anyone who is giving lessons to a relative and hasn’t a clue how to go about it, and the laidback chap teaching his stepdaughter to drive this week was lovely. But the programme is more of a vehicle for Moffatt to flex her presenting skills than anything else.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph